When Harvey Angell arrives at 131 Ballantyre Road, the boarders perk up for no reason at all. Even dour Aunt Agatha allows music in the house and feeds her boarders better, though her stinginess and general unpleasant nature return. Harvey Angell claims to be 'a kind of electrician', but he is really a 'homer' - one who makes connections between the living and the dead so that their homes will be happier. Henry has been missing his parents, killed in an accident, and throughout the book we get short bits about his feelings of anger at his mum's leaving him. Because no one talks to him, those have to be repressed. Aunt Agatha refuses to talk about her loss too, and it is only at the end, after Harvey Angell has made all the 'connections', that she tells Henry about her little boy who died when he was four. This is an odd book - unusual to the point of being fey - but it is also reassuring. The coming to terms with loss it not within the usual forms, but I can see it being of value to imaginative children.